Sin, Iniquity, Rebellion, Evil

Few passages of Scripture have so high a concentration of terms for sin as Isaiah 59. To wit:

pasha’ = rebel, transgress (once as verb, v 13; 3x as noun, vv 12, 20)

awon = guilt (3x, vv 2, 3, 12)

awen = sin, iniquity (3x; vv 4, 6, 7)

chattat = sin (2x; vv 2, 12)

ra’ = evil (2x vv 7, 15; related verb in v 15)

In a single verse (15), Isaiah piles up four words: pasha’ twice, hattat , awon .

If you tally all that up, there are 14 total refers to Israel’s sin and rebellion. It is doubly anti-Sabbatical, and there is “no peace for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21).

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